The cotton market finished moderately higher Monday. Other than being oversold, there was little incentive to see prices trade up. In fact, the Dow Jones traded lower all day, along with weaker Chicago grains, and lower crude oil prices.

Interestingly, it was Monday one week ago when the market finished 100 points higher, only to lose it all the very next day. In fact, for all of last week, the spot market settled only three ticks lower. Anyway, a similar reversal, under the Turnaround Tuesday pattern, could very well repeat itself this Tuesday.

The market has been locked in sideways trade for weeks on end, as it awaits definitive news of the government shutdown and the trade war with China. To the former, there seems to be zero movement between the executive and legislative branches of government. To the latter, a top-level Chinese delegation will arrive in Washington about Jan. 22 for the next level of talks. Both sides continue to operate under a March 1 deadline for either a signed deal or at least proof positive a deal is at hand.

In international news, the water fight in Australia is building. Last year’s drought was blamed on poor government management of the Murray-Darling Reservoir Basin. Recently, a huge fish kill occurred, prompting activists to protest to the national government of promoting the needs of the environment to that of corporate farms. Although the latest spending amounts have tallied over $A13 billion, the reservoir failed to help curtail its first major drought test.

March cotton settled at 7299, up 50; July 7579, up 52; and December finished at 7410, up 46 points. Monday’s estimated volume was 23,300 contracts traded.